Podcasting is a powerful marketing tool for both businesses and individuals. It won’t work for every company, but for those it does, the results can be tremendous: a new audience, more trust, and loyalty, as well as more clients and sales.

In this article, I’ll discuss what business podcasting is and how to start.

Why consider podcasting for business?

Podcasts are essentially an enhanced form of content: they’re more engaging than written articles, they (can be) evergreen, and most of all, they offer a lot of value to the listener.

In a nutshell, podcasts have exploded in popularity in only a few years, and they were originally treated as an underserved sort of material (radio show, but not a radio show). Now, podcasting is gaining traction at an alarming rate, and it’s also driving loyalty. Around 80 percent of podcast listeners listen to all or most of each episode. There are several huge benefits to leveraging podcasting for business:

• Attract a new audience: A fantastic podcast may help you be discovered by people all around the world through the iTunes Store and other podcasting libraries and services.
• Build loyalty: As previously said, if you can get people to listen and like your podcast, you’ll have a devoted fan that will listen to all (or most) of your episodes.
• Build trust: Podcasts may provide a lot of value to the audience. They can include helpful hints and tips, interviews with people they know and respect, and so on. One of the most powerful weapons you have as a business for establishing trust in your brand is providing actual value.
• Attract customers for your business: Business podcasting may be a fantastic client magnet, according to some experts. A successful podcast that demonstrates your expertise and skills might attract clients to you.

Business podcasting: who is it for?

If you spend even a few minutes looking through the iTunes Podcast Store, – or any other similar service – You’ll notice that there are podcasts about everything: true podcasts, comedy podcasts, parenting podcasts, kids’ podcasts, business podcasts, and many more. Podcast marketing can benefit a variety of organizations, most often as an educational tool for their target audience.

For example, If you have a cupcake business, then you can use podcasting to share awesome recipes and discuss cooking and baking techniques.

For nearly every sector, podcast marketing may be used to create trust, loyalty, expand your market, and increase sales and profits.

So, how can you get started?

How to get started with business podcasting in 5 steps

Step 1: Determine your audience

Who do you want to reach with your podcast? Who is the audience that you imagine listening to your show? To reflect the audience that you wish to attract, create personas for them:

• Where they’re from
• What their jobs
• What are their ages and genders are
• What are their interests are
• What their needs are

Step 2: Deciding on a topic:

• Is it relevant to your target audience?
• Does it provide value to your target audience?
• Does it provide enough content to produce several episodes?
• Is this a topic that you’re very knowledgeable about

Step 3: Podcast format and frequency

To be successful with podcasts, you must maintain a high level of quality, frequency, and overall structure.

• Choose your podcast length: How long do you want your podcast to continue? While this varies somewhat on an episode-to-episode basis, it’s a good idea to establish a goal length from the outset; your podcast may endure anywhere from minutes (10-15 minutes) to hours.
• Choose your publishing frequency: This is when consistency is most crucial. You’ll also have to choose when and where you want your episodes to be published. This will ensure that your viewers know exactly when the next episode is coming out.
• Choose the right format: Along the road, your podcast may take on a variety of forms. However, you must first determine what sort of podcast you want to create: an interview podcast, podcasts with two or more co-hosts, or podcasts with a single host. You have the option of producing both audio and video podcasts.

Step 4: Getting the right equipment

You don’t need any special equipment or software to start a podcast using your desktop PC/laptop, but you do need certain tools and programs to make it sound good. Pro microphones are a must if you want people to hear you (and your co-hosts/interviewees as well); consider your format and invest in an appropriate number of microphones. For example, the Shure SM7B. A decent pair of headphones, as well as any type of audio editing software, are a must.

Step 5: Create your Podcast artwork

The artwork for your podcast is also quite significant. It must pique people’s interests and express the purpose of your show.

Your artwork should:

• Be colorful to attract people’s attention
• Include the title of your podcast and
• Include photos of those hosting the podcast (although not mandatory, most podcasts tend to have photos of the hosts on their artwork)

To create your artwork, you can easily do so with content creation tools like Canva.

If you don’t have the time to do your editing and Content creation artwork, professional services, like The Studio at The Village will do the work for you at reasonable pricing.

Conclusion

Podcast advertising can be a useful tool for expanding your reach and establishing credibility that few other forms of content can match. It also doesn’t require a large investment on your part, aside from some equipment, you only need to invest your time in producing podcasts regularly.